Multipolis Mumbai: Heritage in the City

As Founder and CEO of Adventures in Art, Karen Stone Talwar has successfully combined her two passions: travel and art. Karen has extensive knowledge of the modern and contemporary art scene with her years of experience and education at some of the most prestigious institutions and galleries. Over the course of her career spanning over 25 years, she has had many different roles in in art consultancy, luxury brand development as well as high end travel planning. Her eye and natural instinct for art and culture play a strong role in shaping the company. Karen was the first International Managing Director of Christie’s Travel and successfully executed tours in association with Abercrombie and Kent such as the Jewels of London, Art Basel, Indian Art Fair and JAR NY. As Gallery Director of Bodhi Art in New York, Karen set the stage for Bodhi Art to be a strong player in the art scene in New York and across the globe.

An MBA, Firdaus Variava has worked in diverse fields such as telecom, trading, and market research prior to joining Bharat Floorings. Firdaus is responsible for the sales team and for all activities related to marketing. In addition, Firdaus is responsible for the creation of new products to cater to specific market segments and needs and for strategic planning.

Siddharth Sirohi is a designer and the co-founder of the Mumbai based design store, Baro. He designs furniture and has also been working as a Production Designer for films for over a decade and a half now. He was awarded the Lexus design award in the furniture category in the first Indian edition of the award. He was also nominated for a Filmfare award for his work as a Production Designer for the film ‘A Death in the Gunj’. A practioner of Yoga and an avid mountaineer, Siddharth spends most of his time orchestrating the workshop at Baro, ensuring that the work is up to his exacting standards. He graduated with a Mathematics degree from the illustrious St. Stephen’s College after his schooling at the Doon School. Over the course of his career he has worn myriad hats. He taught Geography at the Doon Schoool, worked briefly with NDTV before moving to Mumbai to pursue a career in desiging films. Five years ago he moved his focus to designing furniture and has been helming Baro ever since he co-founded the store.

Gaurav Mahajan is an alumnus of Harvard Business School & NIFT Delhi with close to 25 years of experience in organized retail and track record of building differentiated businesses. He is currently President - Apparel & Made-to-Measure at Raymond Group and is a key player in the transformational journey underway at Raymond. The group’s apparel portfolio comprises Park Avenue, ColourPlus, Parx, Raymond ready-to-wear and Raymond Made-to-Measure. Gaurav is scaling its existing brands and venturing into newer categories with an objective of establishing Raymond as the leading house of lifestyle brands in the country. Prior to joining Raymond Group, Mahajan was one of the founding members of Trent Ltd and was the Chief Operating Officer of Westside in his last role. He is credited with playing a significant part in turning Westside into one of the most successful private label store chains in India.

Hema Shroff Patel is a self-taught handicraft artist. Her passion for textiles led her to launch Amba in 1999. Amba creates a theme based collection of textiles and lounge wear each year. The Amba team is committed to understanding and preserving techniques of traditional Indian weaves, while pushing the boundaries to find a contemporary expression in handloom today. Their work is brought to life by a wonderful team of weavers and block printers in Central India. Amba has been a social enterprise for over ten years, committed to funding projects which sensitively refine and contemporarize traditional weaving skills. Hema has been working in Maheshwar for over 25 years. She served on the WomenWeave Charitable advisory board for 17 years and worked with Rehwa Society to revive their classic Maheshwari saree designs. She continues to work on social welfare projects and recently organised an eye camp for the Maheshwar weaving community.